Cargo container with dual mode doors

ABSTRACT

A cargo container includes a base, side walls and a rear wall on the base and a top attached to the side walls and the rear wall. A front frame is attached to the base, the side walls and the top. Left and right swing out doors are pivotally attached to the left and right sides of the front frame. A roll up door is attached to a top of the front frame, in between the left and right swing out doors. The container may be loaded and unloaded with the swing out doors and the roll up door open, providing a maximum size front opening, or with the swing out doors closed and the roll up door open, providing a reduced size front opening equal to the width of the roll up door.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/197,012, filed Nov. 20, 2018 and now pending, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Air cargo containers have been used for the transportation of cargo byaircraft for many years. Cargo such as cartons, smaller shippingcontainers, etc. is first loaded into a container. The container is thenloaded into an aircraft. Use of air cargo containers is faster thanloading cargo directly into the cargo space of the aircraft, since theindividual cartons need not be separately placed and secured within theaircraft. The air cargo container can also be loaded at locations remotefrom the airport. Furthermore, because the cargo container is typicallydesigned to fit the interior dimensions of specific aircraft, thecontainer fits more securely in the cargo space and does not shiftduring flight. These and other advantages of air cargo containers havemade air cargo containers widely used in the air freight and airlineindustry.

A typical air cargo container includes a base such as a flat square orrectangular aluminum pallet. Many air cargo containers have a roll upfabric or curtain door which may be opened or rolled up for loading andunloading the container. The fabric door is then closed or rolled downand secured with straps or other fittings, or via a rigid metal door barat the bottom of the fabric door latched onto the base of the container.In some air cargo container designs, however, the width of the fabricdoor is limited do the container shape or other factors. This limits thewidth of the container opening.

Other types of cargo container have swing out doors. While these mayhave structural advantages, they are heavier than a roll up door.Typically, these types of containers have opposing left and right sideswing out doors which entirely close off the container opening when thedoors are moved into the closed position.

While these designs have performed well in the past, they may have thedisadvantages discussed above, as well as other drawbacks. Accordingly,engineering challenges remain in designing an improved air cargocontainer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, a cargo container includes a base, side walls and a rearwall on the base and a top attached to the side walls and the rear wall.A front of door frame is typically attached to the base, the side wallsand the top. A swing out door is pivotally attached to a side of thefront frame, and a roll up door attached to a top of the front frame.The swing out door closes off a first portion of a front opening of thecontainer when the swing out door is in a closed position. The roll updoor closes off a second portion of the front opening when the roll updoor is in a closed position. The container therefore may be loaded andunloaded using only the second portion of the front opening, or usingthe entire front opening. A retainer may be pivotally attached to afirst side of the swing out door, with the retainer retaining a firstside of the roll up door when the roll up door is in a closed position.

In another embodiment, the container has a two swing out doors onopposite sides of a roll up door. In this design a left swing out dooris pivotally attached to a left side of the door frame and a right swingout door is pivotally attached to a right side of the door frame. Theroll up door is attached to a top of the door frame, in between the leftswing out door and the right swing out door.

The door frame may optionally include a footer beam with the roll updoor having a door bar attachable to the footer beam when the roll updoor is in the closed position. One or more locking or latching devicesmay be provided on the swing out door, with the locking or latchingdevices engageable with the footer beam for locking the swing out doorinto the closed position.

Other features and advantages will become apparent to persons skilled inthe art from the following detailed description, which is provided as anexplanation of the invention and is not intended to limit the scope ofthe invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, the same element number indicates the same element ineach of the views.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a new air cargo container.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an air cargo container in a fully closedposition, wherein the swing out doors and the roll up door are closed.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the air cargo container of FIG. 2 in apartially open position, wherein the swing out doors are closed and theroll up door is open.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the air cargo container of FIGS. 2 and 3 in afully open position, wherein the swing out doors are open and the rollup is open.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the air cargo container of FIG. 4 showing theleft side door tethered into the open position.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

As shown in FIG. 1, a cargo container 20 has a top 26 attached to sidewalls 24 and a rear wall 28, with the side walls 24 and rear wall 28attached to a base 22. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment having straight andparallel side walls 24 and an angled rear wall section 30. FIGS. 2-5show an embodiment having curved converging side walls 24 and a rearwall 28 with a curved upper section. The invention may used on these andother containers of various shapes and sizes.

Referring still to FIG. 1, the container 20 has a front opening 32formed within a front frame 34. The front frame 34 may include a headerbeam 36 and a footer beam 38. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, first andsecond (or left and right) swing out doors 46 are pivotally attached tothe left and right sides, respectively, of the front frame 34 by hinges48. Typically one or more locking or latching devices 50 are provided oneach swing out door 46 to securely lock or latch the doors 46 into aclosed position. The locking or latching devices 50 may include alever-operated pin movable into a header receptacle 40 in the headerbeam 36 or into a footer receptacle 42 in the footer beam 38.

A roll up door 70 is located at the top of the front frame 34. The rollup door 70 typically includes a flexible curtain 74 wound on a roller72. One or more cables 76 may be sewn onto the flexible curtain 74. Arigid door bar 78 may be attached at the lower end of the flexiblecurtain 74. In FIGS. 1 and 2 the roll up door 70 is centered in thefront opening 32, and the left and right swing out doors 46 aresymmetrical, or mirror images of each other. However, in alternativedesigns, the roll up door 70 may be offset to one side and the swing outdoors 46 may have different widths. Containers with a single swing outdoor 46 on one side of the front frame 34 and a roll up door on theother side of the front frame 34, may also be used, as shown in FIG. 6.In this design the right side of the front frame ends at the dotted lineAA in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows the container 20 in a fully open position. The swing outdoors 46 are open and the roll up door 70 is up or open, providing amaximum size of the front opening 32 of the container 20. FIG. 2 showsthe container 20 in a closed position, with the swing out doors 46closed and the roll up door 70 down or closed. As shown in FIG. 2, leftand right retainers 56 may be attached at the inner edge of the swingout doors 46 via a retainer hinge 58. The retainers 56 can pivot from anopen position, shown in FIG. 3, to a closed position, shown in FIG. 2.In the closed position the retainers 56 largely prevent the sides of theroll up door 70 from bulging outward. Each retainer 56 has a retainerlatch 60 for securing the retainer 56 into the closed position shown inFIG. 2. Door jamb posts 52 may project inwardly from each swing out door46, with the roll up door 70 engaging the door jamb posts 52 when in thedown or closed position. One or more bar locking devices 80 may beprovided on the door bar 78 to attach the door bar 78 onto the footerbeam 38 or other structure, when the roll up door 70 is in the down orclosed position.

FIG. 4 shows the container 20 of FIGS. 2 and 3 in the fully openposition. The roll up door 70 is up and the swing out doors 46 arepivoted open, providing a maximum size front opening 32. As shown inFIG. 5, the swing out doors 46 may be secured into the open position bya tether or latch 54. Loading and unloading the container 20 in thefully open position may be preferred when moving large or long cargointo and out of the container, or when more than one person is doing theloading or unloading.

FIG. 3 shows the container 20 with the swing out doors 46 closed andwith the roll up door 70 up or open. The roll up door opening 90, in theexample of FIG. 3, is about the same width as the swing out doors 46.However, the width of the roll up door 70, which determines the width ofthe roll up door opening 90, may vary depending on intended use of thecontainer 20. Loading and unloading the container 20 using only the rollup door opening 90 (with the swing out doors 46 closed) may be preferredwhen loading smaller cargo, with the closed swing out doors 46 helpingto retain the cargo in place during the loading and unloading.

The principles of the invention as described above may be used on aircargo containers of various shapes, sizes and configurations ofso-called unit load devices (ULD's) as described in the specificationsof the International Air Transport Association. References here to top,side walls and rear wall are to the general area or surfaces of thecontainers, as in containers with curved surfaces may not reveal strictdelineations between these elements. Correspondingly, the term top, sidewall or rear wall may also collectively designate two or more surfaces.The principles of the invention may also be used in cargo containersprimarily or exclusively intended for ground transportation. The designand manufacturing details described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,663,incorporated herein by reference, may be used in the cargo containersdescribed above. Thus, novel containers have been shown and described.Various changes and substitutions may of course be made, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention,therefore, should not be limited, except by the following claims andtheir equivalents.

We claim:
 1. A cargo container, comprising: a base, side walls on thebase, and a rear wall attached to the side walls; a door frame attachedto the base; a swing out door pivotally attached to a side of the doorframe; a roll up door at a top of the door frame; the container having asingle front opening, the swing out door closing off a first portion ofthe single front opening, and the roll up door closing off a secondportion of the single front opening, the first portion and the secondportion together forming the entire single front opening.
 2. The cargocontainer of claim 1 with the swing out door pivotally attached to afirst side of the door frame and with the roll up door attached to thetop of the door frame.
 3. The container of claim 1 with the door frameincluding a footer beam and the roll up door having a door barattachable to the footer beam when the roll up door is in a closedposition.
 4. The container of claim 3 further including at least onelocking device on the swing out door engageable with the footer beam forlocking the swing out door into a closed position.
 5. The container ofclaim 3 wherein the roll up door comprises a flexible curtain wound on aroller centered in the door frame.
 6. The container of claim 5 whereinthe rear wall is curved.
 7. A cargo container, comprising: a base, leftand right side walls and a rear wall attached to the base and a topattached to the left and right side and to the rear wall; a front frameattached to the base; a left swing out door attached to a left side ofthe front frame by left hinges; a right swing out door attached to aright side of the front frame by right hinges; a roll up door attachedto a top of the front frame, in between the left swing out door and theright swing out door; the container having a single front opening, theleft and right swing out doors closing off first and second portions ofthe single front opening when the left and right swing out doors are ina closed position, and the roll up door closing off a third portion ofthe single front opening when the roll up door is in a closed position,the first portion, the second portion and the third portion togetherforming the entire single front opening.
 8. The container of claim 7with the front frame including a footer beam and the roll up door havinga door bar attachable to the footer beam when the roll up door is in aclosed position, at least one locking device on each of the left andright swing out doors engageable with the footer beam for locking theleft and right doors into a closed position.
 9. The container of claim 7wherein the roll up door is centered in the front frame and comprises aflexible curtain wound on a roller, and one or more cables sewn onto theflexible curtain.
 10. The container of claim 9 wherein the left swingout door is a mirror image of the right swing out door.
 11. Thecontainer of claim 9 wherein the container is symmetrical about itscenterline and the left and right swing out doors have equal widths. 12.An air cargo container, comprising: a base, first and second side wallsattached onto opposite sides of the base, and a top and a curved rearwall attached to the first and second side walls; a front frame attachedto the first and second side walls and to the base; the air cargocontainer having a single opening, the single opening in the frontframe; a first side of a first swing out door attached to a first sideof the front frame by first hinges; a second swing out door attached toa second side of the front frame by second hinges, the second swing outdoor and the first swing out door having equal widths; a roll up doorincluding a flexible curtain having one or more cables, the flexiblecurtain wound on a roller at the top of the front frame, the roll updoor in between the first swing out door and the second swing out door,the roll up door centered in the single opening; the front frameincluding a footer beam and the roll up door having a door barattachable to the footer beam when the roll up door is in a closedposition; at least one locking device on each of the left and rightswing out doors engageable with the footer beam for locking the left andright doors into a closed position; wherein, when the container isclosed, the first swing out door closes off a first portion of thesingle opening, the second swing out door closes off a second portion ofthe single opening, and the roll up door closes off a third portion ofthe single opening, the first portion, the second portion and the thirdportion together forming the entire single opening.
 13. The container ofclaim 12 wherein the first swing out door is a mirror image of thesecond swing out door.
 14. The container of claim 12 wherein thecontainer is symmetrical about its centerline and the first and secondswing out doors have equal widths.
 15. The container of claim 12 whereineach side wall has a curved section.
 16. The container of claim 12wherein each of the first and second swing out doors has a lower sectionand an upper section having a width less than the lower section, andfirst hinges are on the lower section of the first swing out door andthe second hinges are on the lower section of the second swing out door.